City's new grant program seeks to aid small businesses

A local engineering and fabrication firm is the first company to receive a grant under a new program aimed at spurring job growth within the Ocala city limits.

By Richard AnguianoBusiness editor

A local engineering and fabrication firm is the first company to receive a grant under a new program aimed at spurring job growth within the Ocala city limits.The city of Ocala, in conjunction with the Ocala/Marion County Chamber & Economic Partnership, awarded the first Small Business Improvement Program grant to Alien Engineered Products.In return for the city's $24,500 investment, Alien Engineered Products is to make a minimum capital investment of $449,000 and hire a minimum of five employees with average annual salaries of around $40,000, according to a city press release.Juan Giron, operations manager for Alien, said his company is the process of finalizing a move to 656 NW 30th Ave. The company's website lists its current address as 3315 SW 13th St., Unit 105.Tim Reynolds founded the company in May 2013 and it currently has nine employees, Giron said."Fully staffed, the plan has us going up to 30 direct-labor employees within the first two years of the business," he said."We have engineering capabilities to design a concept, prototype it and fabricate it," Giron added. "That's really our niche."Melanie Gaboardi, the city's senior manager for economic development, said more grants under the SBIP program are in the works.The program is for businesses of between five and 50 employees in "targeted industries," among them: aviation and aerospace; life sciences; manufacturing; defense and homeland security; information technology; financial and professional services; logistics and distribution; "clean tech;" and headquarters.Officials also give consideration to firms in or moving into the city's "Business Assistance Targeted Areas," which include its enterprise zone, the Urban Job Tax Credit Area, its brownfield areas and its Community Redevelopment Areas.Participants will receive reimbursement grants of up to $25,000. In exchange, Gaboardi said, they are required to create a minimum of five jobs within three years at a salary of 125 percent of the average local wage, which the city currently calculates at $40,198.Business owners interested in participating should first contact Gaboardi at 629-8312 or mgaboardi@ocalafl.org to determine their eligibility, she said."Then if they are eligible, we would go through the application process," she said. "We would have a discussion about what would go into the contract so they would make their commitment. And that contract, depending on the dollar amount, would either be approved by the city manager or would go before City Council for approval."The grants come from city general fund dollars that have been committed to its Economic Investment Program, Gaboardi said.Giron said he learned of the grants through the Chamber & Economic Partnership and credited Kevin Sheilley and Felecia Judge of the CEP with helping the company navigate the application process."It's definitely a step in the right direction to get the economy going again, to try to get not just housing and/or retail business going in the city and county but to give us more of a diversified industry," Giron said of the city grant program. "It's key for small businesses like us to work with the city and the county to get off the ground and get some life injected into the small business arena."